COVID-19 (2): Turns out it's going to be pretty bad actually

Masks + society already adapted to social distancing/clean freaks and quickly adjusted to this?

Is there a way to test an RZ mask for proper fit? I can still smell odors with it on but my understanding is that an N95 mask does not block all odors anyway.

Do you understand isolation pods? Like if you and 3 friends each isolate for 2 weeks and only see each other after that, it’s safe?

Now imagine the Instacart shoppers and clerks are in a pod. You’re interfering in their pod. It’s better to have 5 people shopping for 101 people than 6 people shopping for 101 or 7 for 102.

Even if you’re being safer on your one trip, they still have to show up repeatedly to shop for like 20 people a week or whatever. So they’re there either way, being as safe as they are or are not. You’re the variable.

Yeah I read that. Still doesn’t say anything about false positives. Some degree of false negatives are assumed imo.

The only thing I have going for me I guess is that I’m using the same company used in this Stanford study:

Unless this article is lying:
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Study-investigates-if-COVID-19-came-to-Calif-in-15187085.php?fbclid=IwAR1GreAN_Igg1gbvZMd5YBuiHI-QiS9hM2RKtIPBM-uuVdyvp3-wRXN7dLM

The same brand test is being offered at a lab in Monterey and healthcare workers there are closely watching the study. Spenser Smith with ARCpoint Labs is aware of the theory that COVID-19 arrived here as early as the fall and that some people may have had the virus unknowingly.

https://www.arcpointlabs.com/covid-19-antibody-testing/

  • The use of this test is governed by an emergency order of the FDA (“Policy for Diagnostic Test for Coronavirus Disease-2019 during the Public Health Emergency” issued 3-16-2020). The products we use are not authorized under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), are not FDA approved or authorized and cannot diagnose COVID-19, but they do meet the conditions outlined in the guidance document. We continue to evaluate the testing market for new and emerging labs and testing protocols and will bring those forward as they become available.

  • The Antibodies test is a serology test which measures the amount of antibodies or proteins present in the blood when the body is responding to a specific infection. This test hasn’t been reviewed by the FDA. Negative results don’t rule out SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly in those who have been in contact with the virus. Follow-up testing with a molecular diagnostic should be considered to rule out infection in these individuals. Results from antibody testing shouldn’t be used as the sole basis to diagnose or exclude SARS-CoV-2 infection. Positive results may be due to past or present infection with non-SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus strains, such as coronavirus HKU1, NL63, OC43, or 229E. While the presence of antibodies doesn’t necessarily prevent future infections, they can reduce the severity of future infections of the current COVID-19 strain.

So there you go. Looks like false positives mean exposure to some other strain but not just false out of the blue and could in theory make the severity milder. It would still be interesting to know if that thing I had in Dec. produces antibodies similar to C19 I guess.

If you inhale rapidly, you should notice the mask pressing into your face. There should be a metal band on your nose you should bend to fit. Finally, you must not have more than a day of facial hair.

RZ masks arent N95, activated charcoal should absorb organic odors better than saliva aerosol.

image

And in my case - you’ll know it’s well sealed when you start choking on your own sweat.

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Czech Republic’s announced a week ago that antibody treatment would be ready in a week to be used at (so far) just one hospital.

It gets around all those long medical trials and approvals by plasma not being considered medicine. Got people recovering by the shitload at hospitals as of late in the CR. Might even be recovering faster than they’re going in at this point. Plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

It seems like antibody testing is useful in large trials where you can account for a certain amount of error. But they’re not robust enough yet for single person diagnostic use.

MedicalBros who wear them have said N95 masks should be uncomfortable to wear.

What you have? It might help me feed my cravings :disappointed_relieved:

I’m rather surprised antibody tests having high false positive rates like that. You’d think these would be very specific reactions. But what do I know.

Yeah I’ve been doing all that. I still get some odor, though, like in the room with the trash chute. Supposedly the RZ masks are N95 level, just not officially approved yet. Who knows if it’s true, though.

Maybe the false positives are from antibodies to similar coronaviruses? That’s what the place I’m getting tested at is saying.

I did this. I ended up really enjoying my Sunday evening walks round the local park, a lovely way to spend an hour. One time I even popped in to mass for ten minutes or so, was fine.

Sigh. Had to make a grocery store run for milk and a couple of targeted items.

Acme has stepped up there game a little- now counting people in the store and a guy has spray disinfectant to wipe down your cart when you go in.

However, aisles have gtraffic jams. Over half not wearing any mask and saw some lols- bandana under the nose, mask riding up so high could see ladys lower teeth when she talked.

Gloves about half.

If I worked at the store I’d demand that the customers get educated on the way in and gloves/masks are not optional. The goal is to keep your germs out of the Enclosed environment. If everyone does that the whole system works much better.

It’s not that hard of a concept is it?

If 10% of your customers will get annoyed or offended, it’s too hard unless there are consequences the other way like a law or strike.

That’s it I’m making a Jalfrazi (Patak’s) and add in extra peppers and pineapple :nerd_face:

Madras is my goto when everything has run out, but I’d eat any Indian curry tbh, Rogan Josh, bunna, kashmir is a Fav along with some new designs like Balti etc…

Anything except Masala as that’s not a real curry or Indian it’s a brummy dish :rofl:

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I go to Kroger around 8:45pm when I go as they now close at 9 for stocking.

It’s very dead this close to closing time so I can get through it quickly without going near people.

So that headline is a little misleading in that the researcher was surprised elderly people shedded just as much viral load as young people. Apparently for influenza elderly people can get it, but they don’t shed much viral load. In this case the shedding is 1000x that of SARS.

This part is really interesting:

The Nature paper confirms that “for the milder form of the disease, it doesn’t go as far as the lungs, but stays in the throat”, said immunologist Prof Luke O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin.

“It means it is very transmissible just by talking. You don’t need to cough,” he said. Also, people without symptoms, “are very infectious,” he added.

“Sars never infected the throat. Went straight to the lungs. So a that’s big difference,” he explained.

I read somewhere that speculated zinc lozenges slow down the replication of virus in your throat. Yes it is probably BS. But you’d think if the primary problem is replicating in the throat - there might be some kind of lozenge or something we could all take as a preventative. I have zinc lozenges btw and take them whenever I feel a twinge. Can’t hurt.

This is also really good information:

Some patients in Munich did not have fevers, yet some were super-spreaders. “It is not easy to identify Covid-19 patients,” he warned.

Asked about the Nature study, TCD virologist Dr Kim Roberts noted infectious virus was readily recovered from the nine patients during the first week of symptoms, but not after day 8, though high amounts of viral RNA could be detected. “This could support the suggestion that people, at least with mild symptoms, are less infectious after the first week of symptoms.”

Most of the patients developed antibodies against the virus around day 7 of symptoms, she added.